Podcats #12 and #13

If you're already a subscriber via iTunes, Podbean, RSS, or on Spotify or (now) Youtube you'll know tha there have now been 13 episodes of the Lockdown Podcast series, but if you just read the front page of Madaxeman.com (and never glance at the sidebar) you may accidentally have missed the news that episodes #12 and #13 are already out there in the wild. 

At the moment the Podcast is consistently drawing something like 150 listeners per week, which is kinda staggering, so why not give it a go and listen in as background banter for your weekend of lockdown painting.

Ottoman-Balcan Yaya in 15mm

The Ottoman-Balcan Yaya from Baueda are some of the oddest figures out there, armed with un;it incendiary javelins - so with the imminent closure of Vexillia I of course needed to help Martin out by buying a packet of them from him to help fund his retirement! 

.I made these up as a 6-figure Spear unit and a 2-figure LF javelinmen unit. You can still get them from Baueda directly if you so wish. 

Hungarian infantry & Archers

Having finished the Hungarian cavalry (and some of the foot) a week or so ago, the rest of the army pack has crept to the top of the painting pile. 

These are the two types of spearmen, as well as some bowmen:

This is EMED41 Hungarian 1300-1450: Heavy Spearmen. They have a squared-off shield that is slightly V-shaped in profile, making it very easy to print off a rectangular image and use it as a shield design. I based these in a defensive block as a visual counterpoint to the other spear figures. 

These are EMED40 Hungarian 1300-1450: Heavy Spearman, with an odd-looking notch out of the bottom corner of the shield. This meant picking a design where that bit of the shield could be missing!

All of these are printed out on normal paper, glued on with PVA, cut down to size with a new scalpel blade (very important when trimming these as otherwise the paper can fray), gloss varnished then matt varnished. 

Here's the two formations next to each other 

And all three units of the 'bastion' deployed spearmen

EMED42 Hungarian 1300-1450: Archers - rather an eclectic mix of figures in this pack, and I ended up painting the padded jackets in brown with sandy stripes to give an impression of the banded padding. 

The rest of the uniforms are mostly in classic Hungarian Green and Red. 

The rest of the army is online at https://www.madaxeman.com/main/15mm_Hungarians.php 

Medieval Hungarians - an army from Essex !

After finishing the 10mm French and the 28mm Assyrians, the next Lockdown project has been a 15mm Essex Ready Made Medieval Hungarian army. 

It was sold as a FoGAM army, but with a bit of a squint has more than enough troops to give me all the options and more for both a Feudal and Medieval Hungarian ADLG list. 

With extra time in Lockdown I also took this as an opportunity to take more time than I usually do in painting the army, and especially to try and do the horses properly, in a process which is fully explained on the website (and is very simple). 

I also experimented with a new, higher resolution printer we now have at home, and found a load of images for shields on the web, printed them out onto normal paper and glued them onto the shields of the figures to make them a lot better than I could ever hope to paint.

I also upcycled some old figures and added new shield graphics to them as well. In the absence of LBMS transfers for this army it seemed to go OK. I've posted the WiP and lots of photos of the finished figures on a couple of pages on Madaxeman.com, including a link to download a PDF of some of the shield graphics I used

There's still a few more spearmen to come, but the bulk of the army is now online.

Lockdown Podcast #11

In another surprisingly lengthy podcast the full team celebrate being back together with a conversation that covers all bases, as well as a few associated basing materials.   

Topics addressed in almost painstaking detail include;

• whether ink is just watered down paint with a better PR, 
• if starting a new period by painting the terrain before the figures is a crime against nature, 
• whether if ArmyPainter is good enough for goblins does that mean it's also good enough for the legions of Rome, 
• how long can anyone talk about an army who's uniforms are all white, 
• definitive proof that Eddy Izzard is actually talented at that comedy malarkey, 
• is the choice to paint horses or riders first the wargamers equivalent of the age-old "clotted cream / jam" debate, 
• how invading Egypt might be the ideal way to take a war to the British, 

...and - of course, a timely reminder of the poetic genius of Eric Morcecambe. 

There is also a discussion about that perennial under-achieving arab army, the Fatimid Egyptians in ADLG, another set of questions in Andy's Quiz, and the second triumphant week of Teaching Timmy about Napoleon.

As usual the Podcast is published on Podbean, and is syndicated to all of your favourite Podcast platforms